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And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some info about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I have actually been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent many of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a quick stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino residential or commercial property and worked in corporate financing.

I was the first worker there after private equity bought business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 areas, took it public in 2014, and after that left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Shop. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is primarily protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The secret to the program is we have a drink component too with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast throughout the day.

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A little more complicated than a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we believe we've got something quite unique. We're going to include another store this year and at least four shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading service provider of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our consumers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and essentially offering them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are cherished and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I've only met a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they enjoy the place. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated idea in terms of providing a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a few stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has imagine taking one shop, 2 stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into several states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory expenses remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and development at the very same time. However we're grateful to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to go into that topic. The concerns are going to be truly around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd love to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation assist? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to replicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale excellent groups? And lastly, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in broadening dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a large, varied menu. Many brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food. I feel like we began at a benefit with both brands by having something unique that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

A lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing?

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The 2nd thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they constructed the brand.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin improves as sales boost. I have actually seen so many business where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you shouldn't be constructing stores. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or distinct idea that resonates with clients. And third, the math has to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Exactly. And another key lesson has to do with going into new markets.

But when we expanded to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. A lot of operators assume brand-new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That nearly never ever happens. And when the stores open slow, however you have actually signed leases and developed a monetary model based on higher volumes, you get overextended.